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Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Book of the Week: The Pumpkin Patch

In my speech room, we've been continuing the fall theme with pumpkin activities. This week's book is “The Pumpkin Patch (Robin Hill School)
” written by Margaret McNamara. This is a Level 1 Ready-to-Read
book. I love using Level 1 and Level 2
books in therapy! Typically in these
books, there’s just enough language without making it too complicated – great
for kids with auditory and listening comprehension difficulties!

On to “The Pumpkin Patch!”
The book tells the story of Mrs. Connor’s first grade class and their
field trip to the pumpkin patch. The
main character is a girl named Katie who has a goal of finding the “perfect
pumpkin.” When the students get back to
the bus, they all have different types of pumpkins – big, tall, round, and very, very small
(Katie’s pumpkin). When she discovers
that her pumpkin is so very small, she decides that is must not be
“perfect.” When she got home, her dad
showed her that it was perfect for making a pumpkin pie.

When I introduce the book to my students, I tell them that
the story is about a trip to a pumpkin patch and I ask if any of them has ever
been to a pumpkin patch. Then I show
them pictures that I had taken on a field trip several years ago. Fortunately for me, my field trip experience was remarkably similar to the one in the book J It never
ceases to amaze me, but when I use “real” pictures, they are the highlight of
my sessions! I cannot believe the amount of language they induce! ("I went on a tractor that was red!" "I picked a big pumpkin from the pumpkin patch" "I never got to go on a bus like that before!").

At this point, I read the story and ask comprehension
questions (How did Katie’s class get to the pumpkin patch? Did Katie find the biggest pumpkin in the
patch?, etc.). We discuss the different
types of pumpkins that Katie and her classmates picked. Then I bring out my pumpkin patch:

I found different images of pumpkins on Google images and
printed them out. I (very hurriedly) put
together this sad little pumpkin patch (2 sheets of large brown construction paper
taped together, grass and vines drawn to create rows). Then I attached my pumpkins to the patch with
Velcro. I had the students then describe
each pumpkin in the patch. We then
worked on receptive comprehension and/or expressive use of descriptions. Each student took a turn to (1) pick a
pumpkin based on my description of it, or (2) pick a pumpkin and describe it to
me.

I work as a school based speech-language pathologist in New Bedford, MA. I work primarily with students in preschool and kindergarten. I'm also the mom of a very sweet little boy who takes up much of my free time.